At First Sight
by forever
Summary: This story takes place about four years from now in DC world. Joey has just started her senior year in college.


Disclaimer: The usual. I don't intend to infringe DC and all aspects of it.   
Rating: PG for now ;)   
Category: Futurific, romantic comedy, with focus on friendship. Couple: D/Jo   
Spoiler: Season 1-4   
Summary: This takes place about four years from now in DC world. Joey has just started her senior year in college.   
Acknowledgement: Thanks a bunch to my beta readers. You guys are the best. :)   
Feedbacks, comments, and suggestions are always appreciated and accepted :) 

* * *

**At First Sight**   
By Priscilla 

**Part 1**   
****

**_ Dear diary,_**

**_ When you always think that love at first sight is nothing but an overrated romantic fantasy, it happens…_**   
**_ Well, not quite_…**   
****   
****

** The door to the bathroom was abruptly flung open as Joey Potter dashed through it in a bathrobe, her wet hair wrapped in a towel. With her right hand, she secured the towel on her head from tumbling down. She nearly tripped on the freshly waxed wooden floor as she ran for the unceasing doorbell.**   
** Standing in front of the door, she looked through the peephole, trying to determine who in their right mind would interrupt her peaceful and soothing shower. She gritted her teeth when she saw, through the small hole, her best friend, looking extremely impatient, was about to reach for the doorbell for the nth times. Immediately she unlocked and swung open the door, still holding the towel with her right hand.**   
** "About time. I thought I would have to pick a lock or something."**   
** Joey didn't even have time to open her mouth. Without invitation, the blond perpetrator just barged right in, pushing her to the wall. Joey then sent a killer glare at her best friend who managed to brush it off by walking away to the bland, yet rather welcoming, living room. Watching her best friend's back, Joey breathed out aloud, she sighed in frustration. She rolled her eyes as she closed the door gently and locked it.**   
** "Joey you wouldn't believe what happened to me today. Guess what?" Joey heard her best friend exclaim, sounding extremely excited.**   
** "What?" Joey questioned back in an annoyed tone, walking toward the living room. Sitting on the sofa, she let the towel unwrap and fall onto her shoulder. She eyed her best friend who seemed oblivious to the half-angry state she was in.**   
** "Come on Joey, guess. You should know."**   
** "Hmm… let me think. This wouldn't have anything to do with 6 foot, muscular, blue eyes, blond hair, and tanned skin, right?" Joey replied sarcastically.**   
** "You're almost there, but not quite," her best friend commented. Joey just rolled her eyes, hoping it showed she was not too thrilled to be participating in the guessing game.**   
** "You're hopeless, Joey. Fine, I'll tell you." Her best friend paused briefly to take a deep breath before continuing. "I think I'm in love."**   
** Hearing her best friend rather naïve confession, Joey couldn't keep herself from laughing. Her best friend glared at her in response.**   
** "Laugh all you want Joey Potter. But this feeling is real. I think I'm in love. I'm falling in love at first sight. Wow! That sounded so incredibly romantic, love at first sight…" Her best friend trailed off, looking dreamily.**   
** Joey smirked watching her. "Yeah sure, whatever. And this… Let me jog your memory. Weren't you the idiot who called my cell phone while I was in the middle of a sociology lecture earlier this week, telling me that you're so desperately in love, yet again, Ms. Tara West, causing me attending an extra lecture courtesy of my dearest Professor. Also, the week before, you mentioned something like this…" Joey stopped, and then stood up. Cradling her face and staring dreamily off into space, Joey started to do an impression of her best friend. Her best friend, Tara, just observed quietly, sitting on the sofa. "Oh Joey, I think I would never feel like this way again. I don't think I've ever," Joey mimicked Tara in a high-pitch, falsetto voice, acting out one of her best friend's famous lines she'd known since they became roommate in the University's dorm. Joey then let out a stream of repressed chuckles as she threw herself onto the sofa.**   
** Looking at Joey, angrily, Tara bounced off from the sofa and stood up, her hands on the hips. "Whatever." Tara retorted through her puckered lips, obviously not amused with Joey's mocking nature.**   
** Sensing her best friend growing upset; Joey immediately stood up next to her and wore an apologetic look. "Sorry. I just couldn't help myself."**   
** Tara just stared at Joey's face, still angry, but after a few seconds she just broke out smiling. "Fine. I guess, I'm used to your cynics by now."**   
** "Oh you are, huh?"**   
** "Yes Joey, I am. I mean after living for the whole two years with you. That should come with the package, you know."**   
** "The package?"**   
** "You know, the Joey Potter's package, it comes with the sharp-tongued brunette, her moodiness, her wit, and of course not to forget her cynics."**   
** "That's all, I mean, to the package?" Joey asked in a mock-disappointment.**   
** "Yup that's it." Tara said, looking as if she'd try to think hard if she'd missed anything.**   
** Joey playfully scowled and elbowed Tara on the ribs.**   
** "Ouch!" Tara glanced toward Joey giving a 'why'd you do that look'. Joey just returned the look with her 'angelic' look.**   
** "Hey! I know what else. It also comes with the heavy duty best friend package, the loyalty, caring, et cetera and et cetera." Tara immediately said.**   
** Joey just giggled listening to Tara, soon after that Tara joined**   
**her also. Tara then excused herself to go to use the restroom.**

** "Tara West and Joey Potter are best friends. What an absurd concept." Joey mused as she watched as Tara walked away. She slowly sat down on the sofa, pulling her legs toward her, and bending her knees so that she's sitting Indian-style.**   
** Joey would never have believed that she could ever socialize with someone like Tara, let alone becoming best friends with them. Tara West and she seemed like a mismatched pair of socks. Joey was the moderately conservative, studious type who took everything so seriously. Whereas, Tara was the wild, 'fine male species' worshipper type who thought that going to college meant more freedom, guys, parties, and more guys. But miraculously, Tara had always managed to stay within the top ten positions in all of her classes.**   
** Physically they could be easily distinguished. One of the most conspicuous distinctions between them was that Joey had a shoulder length brown hair and Tara had blond hair, which hung a little longer over the shoulder. They were still some other differences between them, too. But, despite all of the striking opposite characteristics - except for one that they shared which was that they're both females - Joey could never regret her friendship with Tara.**   
** Instead, if she felt anything at all, it was gratitude and thankfulness.**

** Their friendship had slowly blossomed through out their freshman year and continued on through their sophomore year. It all started when she first stepped into her new living quarters for the rest of her year in college, the dormitory. She remembered feeling nervous when knocking on the door to the room that she would be sharing with a stranger. When the door was opened, a girl about the same height as her sprung up and entangled her arms around her excitedly, hugging her tightly, nearly suffocating her.**   
** "Oh my gosh, you must be Josephine Potter. You don't know how long I've been waiting to meet you."**   
** And at that time, she was completely awestruck that she couldn't even utter a single word, instead she just hugged back the hyper blond, while trying her best to ignore the hesitation in the pit of her stomach. The girl then held her at an arm length, smiled so sweetly, examining her.**   
** "You look as beautiful as I pictured you would be. But…hmm… we could do something about your makeup and then the hair… Come on," the girl said as she grabbed her hand and pulled her in.**   
** As she was being towed inside the room, she, of course, could only roll her eyes and mutter sarcastically to herself, "This could be the start of a beautiful friendship."**   
** But against all odds, that was in fact what had happened. They became friends. It was true that in the beginning she had had trouble getting used to living with a human Barbie, and Tara West was definitely a Barbie doll in the flesh. She had the hair, the eyes, and even the proportions. But seeing right through Tara's mannequin superficiality, she found Tara to be a very caring, thoughtful, and warm person. Much to her surprise, they became good friends within their first few months sharing the dorm, and their friendship had been fostered and matured thereafter. Thinking about the evolution phase of their friendship, one particular occurrence came to her mind, which changed the course of their friendship forever.**   
** One time, during their sophomore year, she broke up with her boyfriend of two years since high school, Pacey Witter. Even though the break up was mutual, she still felt incredibly devastated. She could never forget what Tara did at that time to help her to get through the pain. Tara had actually, entirely out of her free will, cleaned up her whole schedule for a week, which included the long awaiting date she had been pursuing for weeks, so that she could be with her, keeping her company during her misery as Tara would refer it to. She was deeply touched by her roommate's unselfish and unexpected effort.**   
** Joey smiled, recalling all of the attempts Tara had made to keep her from wallowing. One of them was something that she could never forget. On one of the nights, Tara went ahead and orchestrated an all-female party. The party had taken place in one of the juniors' apartment. Later she found out that there was actually a reason behind having it there, instead of having it in the dorm. The party had started out just like any others, but that was before a group of very good-looking men walked in, dressed in extra tight police uniforms. Joey let out a soft chuckle mentally recreating what had transpired in the gathering that night, especially after the 'policemen' had livened up the party in their own ways. After that week, she had finally acknowledged Tara as her best friend. It took her awhile too finally call her that. For some reason, the thought of having a best friend didn't sound too appealing to her; instead she was actually a bit scared. Her fear could probably have stemmed from the fiasco that happened during her high school year resulting in a total loss for herself, the loss of her long time best friend for good. Her best friend…**   
** The last time she saw him was at the graduation, and they barely exchanged congratulations even then…**

** The sound of the toilet being flushed followed by the sound of the faucet being turned ceased her reminiscing temporarily. Joey reclined her back toward the sofa, straightened her legs, and rested her feet on the glass coffee table. Her best friend…**   
** She missed him. She truly missed him, but she couldn't bring herself to seek him out, not after everything that had occurred between them. It took her the whole four years - and all of the courage she could muster to isolate herself from all of the things reminded her of him - to finally put a closure to the chapter.**   
** Yes, that's how she really did it, by cultivating the thought in her mind, that Dawson Leery was merely a chapter on her life saga, an unfinished one. And, the fact that there should be at least two thousand miles between them also eased the process tremendously. Well, that was just a speculation, she'd convinced herself of, since, in reality she didn't even know where he was now. Heck, she didn't know the whereabouts of her other friends either, well except for Pacey who claimed to love Capeside so much that he just couldn't leave the dear town. She pretty much lost touch with most of her friends from high school, since after the graduation every body seemed to have vanished without a trace, including her in a way.**   
** Joey closed her eyes tightly, trying to erase an image of her long time best friend smiling at her, the image that had managed to slowly sneak out of its place, locked inside of her.**

** As Joey slowly opened her eyes, she saw a pair of sparkling green eyes, looking straight at her with concern.**   
** "Are you OK? You're not still thinking about him, aren't you?" Tara asked with evident worries in her face. Joey gave Tara a puzzled look, not quite sure who's him in the question was.**   
** "I mean, Pacey," Tara explained quickly. "How long has it been, two years at least?"**   
** "Pacey who?" Joey replied, sounding as if she had never heard the name before. As Tara threw a pointed look at her, Joey simply conceded, "Of course not."**   
** Joey sighed in relief. Since they became friends, Joey had successfully told Tara the story of her life without putting so much emphasis on her 'soulmate'. The only thing that she did mention was a Dawson Leery whom she had dated on and off for few months, but that was all.**   
** Tara then threw herself onto the plush couch, lounging next to Joey, sighing dramatically. "You know, we should really get you a new boyfriend. I mean, since Greg, you haven't shown any interest on anybody else."**   
** Joey smiled sarcastically, half-heartedly hearing her best friend, while she ran her hand through her hair, separating the wet strands that'd clumped together. "Here we go again," she said to herself inaudibly, so not to be heard by Tara.**   
** "What was that that you said about love at first sight?" she asked with a little bit over eagerness. Tara just looked at her skeptically.**   
** Attempting to change the subject for the moment, Joey suddenly displayed an interest in Tara's current love life, which had no appeal to her what so ever earlier.**   
** "Joey Potter, if I didn't know you any better I would think that you just deliberately ignored my show of concern for you and attempted to change the subject in a very sly yet smooth manner."**   
** Joey just ignored Tara, pressing for a response. "Come on, Tara. I know you're dying to tell me about this new guy. So, what does he look like? Any name? Do I know this 'prince charming' who swept my best friend off her feet?" Joey certainly knew well enough how to push Tara's buttons, either on or off. Tara's incredulous look slowly faded, replaced by an ear to ear grin.**   
** "He's handsome, Joey. And may I say beyond adorable. Also this guy has 'the bod', you know," said Tara, elatedly. Grabbing a pillow, she then continued, "No name, though, but that's where I hope you can help me." Tara looked at Joey half-pleadingly, as Joey just looked back at her bewilderedly, pulling her back from the sofa and moving her feet away from the table.**   
** "Huh? Care to elaborate on that me helping you part, Tara?" Joey asked; sounding none too pleased.**   
** "Well, Joey, apparently prince charming might have dwelled in this very apartment complex of yours," Tara simply answered, holding the pillow on her lap.**   
** Joey looked confounded, not making any comments.**   
** Looking at Joey's face, Tara added, "I think I should tell you the whole story." Joey just nodded in agreement. Tara took a deep breath before starting, and stood up from her seat, facing Joey.**   
** "When I was standing up downstairs, trying to figure out how to get inside the building since my best friend had so conveniently forgotten to tell me." Tara gave Joey a dirty look, as Joey shrugged innocently in response, showing her lopsided smile. "Anyway, where was I? Oh right, standing outside. I was about to give up and just drive back, but then this guy came. A very cute one, I should say. He asked me if I wanted to go in. But at that time, I wasn't really paying attention, so when I turned to face him to nod my answer. Hubba hubba, I almost lost it. There standing before me was this guy, showing off his dazzling smile. I was paralyzed instantly, practically fainting."**   
** Joey let out a gentle laugh, watching Tara's over exaggerated reenactment of her fainting. Tara then had to recollect herself before proceeding. She sat down gently next to Joey.**   
** "He had to ask me again before I could finally answer him, after regaining my full senses. He just laughed at my clumsiness. And boy, he looked even cuter when he laughed." Tara squealed delightedly.**   
** "Oh that's how you got in. I was wondering," interrupted Joey. Looking at Tara's annoyed face, she immediately added, "Then?"**   
** "Well then unfortunately he went directly in the direction opposite of mine. It took me approximately three minutes to finally able to move again."**   
** Faking a disappointment in her voice, Joey asked, "That's it?" Joey couldn't let this opportunity to mock her best friend go to waste.**   
** "What do you mean, that's it? I was totally captivated. This guy stole my heart just like that. I'm falling in love with him, on the blink of an eye. Awww… Wasn't that extremely romantic or what?" Tara drifted off.**   
** "No introduction, no phone numbers swapping?" Joey pressed on, pulling Tara out of her lapse.**   
** While smiling sweetly, Tara shook her head and answered, "Nope. And that's why you're going to help me."**   
** "Oh no, you don't. Please don't cast me into this ill-fated love story of yours." Joey dissented to the idea and emphasized her opposition with hand gestures.**   
** "Ill-fated? Gee thanks for your support, Joey, some best friend you are," Tara said derisively, glaring at Joey.**   
** "Seriously, are you really considering to pursue this? I mean, you don't even know the guy. Not even his name. And you claimed that you're in love with him already."**   
** "Yup, love at first sight, so unexpected yet so romantic," Tara affirmed, nodding her head.**   
** "Love at first sight, oh please. That's just an overused notion that's been taken for granted for decades now. Come on, it may happen during the Romeo and Juliet era or even in the sixties, but now?" Joey voiced her opinion.**   
** "You'll be surprised to know that there's actually such a thing called love at first sight. It's probably not common but it exists till this very day. And I think that is the most beautiful form of love." Tara answered with conviction, attempting to convince Joey.**   
** "Uh huh… It should be called lust at first sight, more precisely. I mean how can you be in love with someone that you don't even know yet. I mean, at first sight, what do you know? Beautiful eyes? Sexy lips? Perfect 'bods'?" Joey commented in a teasing manner.**   
** "No! You're wrong! Love at first sight doesn't have to be physical." Tara vehemently objected to Joey's words.**   
** "No? Then what? I would really like to hear this." Joey asked, challenging her best friend.**   
** Tara glanced at her and simply smiled dreamily, her eyes wandered around. Then started talking, keeping her voice soft and sentimental as her eyes glimmered with passion, and her hands moved ardently; her face all aglow.**   
** "Love at first sight is when you feel this magical soulful connection, sort of like telepathy but not quite. You feel connected in a very strange way to this other person that you've barely known. Your mouth is probably tightly locked, but that doesn't matter since the eyes are the one that do the talking anyway. You feel this amazing feeling, you know, rushing of your blood and the butterflies in your stomach. Everything around you just freezes. You almost believe that only you two exist in the world. You could hear your own heart beating, so fast that you think it will burst. You just feel yourself being drawn deeper and deeper and even deeper into this state of pure and complete bliss. And you feel like you're flying high, walking on clouds," Tara finished still sounding dreamy and giddy.**   
** "Uh huh… And you concluded that you're in love with this guy just because he smiled at you? Where's the connection there?" Joey asked, further provoking her best friend.**   
** This time Tara didn't even attempt to defend herself. As she eyed Joey, she sighed loudly expressing her frustration. "Fine, don't believe me. I wish that it would happen to you, you know. Then you can wipe that smug grin off your face, and I would just say: I told you so."**   
** Being aware of the growing hostility, Joey immediately changed the subject, "Anyway, how can I be of your assistance in bringing you closer to this so-called prince charming of yours?"**   
** Tara's facial expression certainly showed that she hadn't expected that from Joey, but she recovered fast. "Well for starters, you could start by finding out his name. Then, you can introduce yourself to him. Then, you can casually ask him out," she responded lightly, merrily granting Joey her plan.**   
** "Excuse me? Finding his name? Ask him out? And how would I accomplish that oh my so wise best friend, considering that there are actually at least one hundred tenants living in this apartment complex. Going door to door?" Joey asked bitingly.**   
** "If you must." Tara answered half-jokingly. Then, after looking right at Joey's death stare, she quickly rephrased herself, "I'm sure you can find a way, Joey. You're the clever one between us two."**   
** "Sure whatever. Hold on, didn't you say that I need to ask him out? And why is that?" Joey asked.**   
** Crossing her leg over her other leg, Tara explained. "See, I think it will be a little way too inconvenient if I suddenly spend most of my times here, so I was thinking it will be nice and more romantic if you would bring him somewhere, like the club, and naturally introduce him to me there. What do you think?"**   
** Glaring at Tara intensely, Joey just shook her head in mock-frustration. She muttered quietly, "What am I getting myself into, this time?" But her mutter didn't go unnoticed by Tara.**   
** Tara shot her a look before taking a pillow and threw it hard at her.**

** Joey checked the content of her wallet one last time before she stuck it back onto her jeans' pocket. She had to make sure that she had enough money to last her for rest of the day. After being sure, she then grabbed the doorknob and turned it opening the door. Still holding the door open, she stepped outside into the long, narrow open-air corridor.**   
** "Guys, I'll be in the library for most of the day, OK? So don't dispatch a search party after me," she shouted to her roommates, Kellie and Sara whom were probably still snoring under the warmth of the blankets.**   
** Hearing no response, she closed the door gently while smirking. "Lazy bums," she grumbled.**

** Joey strolled down the seemingly deserted walkway quietly, taking in the mundane and repetitive scenery all around her. To her right was the row of white painted doors alternating with beige colored empty walls. To her left was the metal banister, framing the edge of the floor where she's standing, separating her from the courtyard three stories down. As she walked, her hand barely grazed the metal railing.**   
** Monday was the first day in the new apartment that she shared with these two girls minus her best friend. When she finished her junior year last spring; she had always planned to move out of the noisy and over crowded dormitory in which she had been staying since she first started college.**   
** At that time, her stumbling block was always money. Out of nowhere, toward the end of her spring semester, she was offered a job, which came with good compensation and benefit. Of course, she couldn't turn down the excellent opportunity. Next, then came the ad on the bulletin board, where there were these two roommates living in an apartment, looking for a female who was willing to rent an empty room due to a sudden departure of their friend. Without too much contemplating, she took out the ad pamphlet out of the board and went to see the apartment, along with the intention of meeting her will-be-roommates. She fell in love with the place the minute she arrived in front of the modern stylish architecture building. And after getting acquainted with her prospective roommates and a tour of the place, it didn't take her very long before she settled on a decision. She loved the apartment, and she seemed to get along well with the two girls whom later she found out were actually attending some of her classes, so there was nothing else to do besides signing on the dotted line.**

** Joey stopped her steps, arriving in front of the two elevators. She reached her hand out to press the button for going down. She then took a step back, looking up to see the floor indicator while nibbling on her bottom lip.**   
** The only negative outcome out of her moving was that she would be separated from her best friend. Initially, Tara had blatantly opposed to the moving out idea on more than several occasions, causing some frictions between them. But at the end, Tara had finally relented, giving Joey a blessing for moving out of the dorm into the apartment. That, of course, happened after Joey, with obvious reluctance, had promised to hold several parties, certainly with her roommates' consents.**   
** DING!**   
** She heard the distinct sound from the elevator, as the doors slowly parted to the sides opening up. She stepped inside the narrow confinement and pressed for the parking garage level while the doors were slowly closing,**   
**coming . Waiting anxiously for the doors to open again, she had her eyes glued to the digital floor level indicator. She had always had this thought in the back of her mind when riding on an elevator that someday somehow she would be stuck in the claustrophobic box. Much to her dismay, the thought had always surfaced whenever she was in an elevator. But she should start to overcome her apprehension from now on, since using the elevator was her only option to get to the lower level and vice versa, without wasting too much energy.**   
** DING!**   
** As the elevator doors slowly opened up, she heaved a sigh of relief. Her eyes were still fixated on the indicator box, but she wasn't really being particularly meticulous. Then, when she realized that the indicator was at the lobby level, instead of the parking level to where she was heading, disappointedly, she jerked her head down, looking straight toward the front.**   
** The next few seconds came out as a blur for her, but Tara's voice could be heard clearly, echoing in her head.**

_"…you feel this magical soulful connection, sort of like telepathy but not quite. You feel connected in a very strange_   
_ way to this other person…"_

** She could feel the instantaneous connection. It was truly magical, something that couldn't be explained with normal mind.**

_"Your mouth is probably tightly locked, but that doesn't matter since the eyes are the one that does the talking…"_

** She felt her lips stiffen and her jaw lock. It didn't matter, though, because her eyes spoke in there own language to convey her heart's message to the other eyes, after receiving the message, the other eyes understood well and sent a message back to hers. Their eyes met. They practically conversed with each other without even opening their mouths.**

_"You feel this amazing feeling… rushing of your blood and the butterflies in your stomach…"_

** Those were definitely there. The rushing, the butterflies, she could surely feel them.**

_"Everything around you just freezes… only you two exist in the world. You could hear your own heart beating, so_   
_ fast that you think it will burst…"_

** She felt her heartbeat at least triple in speed than before, so fast.**

_"You just feel yourself being drawn deeper and deeper and even deeper into this state of pure and complete bliss._   
_ And you feel like you're flying high..."_

** Just then, the elevator's doors were slowly closing in on her, as she stood motionless. She could only watch as the sight outside the elevator disappeared before her very eyes, replaced by the sight of the cream colored doors. She shut her eyes tightly. She attempted in vain to regain her normal heartbeat.**   
** Suddenly, the doors stopped moving. She opened her eyes, looked down, and then noticed somebody's foot was holding the two doors from closing. The second her eyes landed on the foot clad in brown suede shoe, she held in her breath. She didn't need to think hard to guess whose foot would that be. The doors slowly opened up as a lone figure walked in and stood right in front of her.**   
** "In a hurry to go somewhere, I assume?"**   
** Joey smiled nervously and slowly looked up. As their eyes met for the second time, she stuttered in a soft whisper, "Da-Dawson."**   
** "Long time no see, Joey."**   
****   
****

** _Dear diary,_****__**

**_ He's back. My so-called soulmate is back. And I might have started losing myself again…_**


End file.
